Josh Turns 30

Last Friday Josh turned 30! At first I wanted to do a big surprise party but he is really hard to surprise and the logistics just were not working out. Instead, I told him that we were going to dinner and that a few other people might join us. Really it was about 15 other people who came and he was not expecting that at all. We went to ESPN Zone which Josh loves. Originally we thought the Mavs/Spurs playoff game might be on but the Mavs won the series the game before. That was probably a good thing since I don't think Josh would have been able to pay very much attention to the game.

I had 3 other surprises and presents for Josh. The first was a t-shirt quilt that my mom started working on in October. I picked out the shirts, bought all the fabrics and planned most of the layout and my mom hand quilted it together. Josh knew that I was going to get him a t-shirt quilt someday and in the process of us moving kept saying things like "this shirt should definitely go in a quilt". Several times I wanted to yell at him that it was already being made.
I also put together a book of birthday letters people had written to Josh. The original plan was 30 letters for a 30th birthday. I think I ended up with about 28. There are a few that still may come in so I can add them. I bought a stack of 8x8 cardstock that was in coordinating patterns and colors, put all the letters on pages and then had it bound at Kinkos. I have to say, I was pretty proud of how it turned out. So many of the letters and memories people wrote made me laugh - one in particular was from Josh's Grandmother and was about the time he hid in her car and called him mom a mean step-mother.
The last surprise was really his big present. For several years Josh has been saying that he wanted a new flat screen tv. The one we had was old and occasionally the colors were really off. He kept saving birthday and Christmas money to put towards it but didn't have enough and ended up getting other things instead. So, my plan was instead of just collecting money from family members and give him that, I would actually go out and buy a tv to give him. I talked to his mom and she thought it was a great idea since it is always more fun to actually give a present rather than a gift card or money. I found an amazing deal at Ultimate Electronics and had the tv stored at a friend's house. I wrapped up the receipt and the warranty information for him to unwrap. He was surprised and couldn't wait until the next morning when we got to go pick it up.

All in all it was a good birthday. There are some pictures below!

Oh, I forgot that Josh also got to get a new car the night before his birthday. You may remember that his was totaled by a drunk driver while parked on the street. So after a long long insurance ordeal he got a 2004 Nissan Xterra and it is awesome.